Student engagement in higher education: Lecturers’ perspectives

Abstract

This article, a stepping stone for further research, explored lecturers' perspectives on student engagement at a higher education institution (HEI). This qualitative case study was based on an interpretivist paradigm and Schindler’s conceptual framework on behavioural, emotional and cognitive indicators. A purposive sampling technique was applied to select eight lecturer-participants presently teaching compulsory modules in the initial year of the teacher education programme at a HEI in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. A narrative interview, discursive informed conversations, and an open-ended questionnaire were used to generate data from all the participants. A thematic data analysis technique was employed. According to the findings, lecturers at the HEI understand student engagement as participation, which entails being interactively and meaningfully involved during lectures. This includes collaboration, co-construction, interaction, and metacognition. Considering the conclusion and the results, this study paves the way for further research that explores active participation through digital pedagogy. Such research is recommended to provide further insights into student engagement and inspire more contributions in this area.

Keywords

• active participation
• collaboration
• co-construction
• interaction
• metacognition